I am leaving for Asia in the Morning

I figured it would be nice to get one more blog out before I leave for Asia. I can't write in it myself while I am gone but my friend, Sarah will be posting on it for me so keep checking back.

Update on Daniel's visa
It's been nothing but drama trying to get a visa for our Indian student. We are now on our second visa company and have had a serious FedEx-related set-back. His passport went through the destination city- L.A. and on to Memphis and back to L.A. We had some serious time constraints that meant any delay would mess up everything.

Now his visa is processing but since we leave tomorrow, he will not be able to travel with us. We are praying his visa will be granted and he can join us soon. Please pray. Please also pray for Johanna and Grace as we attempt to get their visas in Hong Kong.

This week has been packed. We've had lectures on post-modernism Monday morning, Tuesday morning and night and this morning. We've also had staff meetings, base clean-up and team bonding time. I definitely don't feel rested going into this trip but I am very excited. We jump right into our work when we get to Asia. I should be leading an English corner within days of arriving. I don't mind because I love this stuff.

I should probably continue to pack and then go to sleep at a reasonable hour. Normally when I travel I stay up really late and sleep on all my flights. This time I am in charge of 8 other people so I need to be nice and coherent in the morning. We'll see how that goes.

I hate visas!

I have been super busy and we had to fast from electronic media last week. This two things have combined to explain the tardiness of this blog entry.

Most DTS schools are marked by some sort of issues. Usually it is immaturity and poor decision making by the students. Our students are amazing but we've been bogged down logistically to the extreme! Our first hurdle was finances. Up until the final deadline, it was not even guaranteed that my co-leader would be going. He got his money on the last day possible and we found a way for all our team members to go. It was somewhat miraculous, definitely nerve-wracking and totally glorifying to God.

Our current hurdle is visas. Other teams have used a service on the internet that takes your visa application and passport to the consulate and gets you a visa. They have had pretty good luck so far. We did not. I am currently asking the Lord to forgive me for my hatred towards Jeff, the visa guy. First we found out that our Americans' visas would all cost $10 more a piece because the price literally changed between the time our passports and paperwork were mailed and when they arrived at the company. The annoying part was that they weren't able to tell us in advance so we had to go to the trouble of paypaling the money. Then we find out that they our foreign students don't have the kind of visas for the US that they "need." Then we have to send them a letter on our letterhead that says they are going to school in the USA. We also had to fax all their flight info. Another hassle.

After we fax this in, they tell us that our Canadian needs to prove she is actually in America. In order to do this, we had to take Sarah and her identification to a notary to prove she is indeed here. So weird! Then they tell us that our paperwork for our Korean and our German is wrong but that they are processing our Indian. They try to convince us to change the paperwork and let them try again. We decide they have not proven speedy or trustworthy so we will take our chances elsewhere.

They processed our Americans and Canadian. Then they told us our Indian got rejected. We looked into our options and we can get visas for the German and the Koren in Hong Kong. Because of India's relationship to the country we are going to, it is impossible to get him a visa there. We have one last hope for Daniel, our Indian's visa. We found a company that said they can do it in time for a price. Please pray that this works out. We all want him to go so bad. If it all works out, the visa will come Wednesday and we leave Thursday morning. Talk about cutting it close!

Despite daily talks and emails to Jeff the visa guy and daily discouragements in that department, God has been so good to us. I sent out an email prayer request about the visas and one of my long-time supporters has offered to pay the cost of our two nights and three days in Hong Kong as we get the visas for our German and our Korean. This is a huge blessing as our team is already going out short on funds so that everyone could go. I feel like this will all work out in the end but I definitely need your prayers.

One of our students, Grace has also had some bad news. Her uncle who lives in the USA was visting her family in Korea. While there, he fell off a ladder and went in to a coma. On Thursday he died. This is sad of course but also presents tons of problems as he has died in a country where he is not a citizen. There is a chance that Grace's family will be responsible for his $100,000 medical bill. Also Grace's dad was diagnosed with kidney cancer a few weeks ago. He had surgery and it seemed okay. The same day she found out about her uncle, she found that her dad's cancer was worse than they thought and it had spread to the muscle. The doctors think they got most of it with surgery but are still deciding treatment as it is a fast growing cancer. Poor Grace is so far away. She is praying about whether or not she is supposed to go home. Please pray for her family.

And just when I start to feel overwhelmed by all these logistical problems, I hear of something so terrible that my troubles pale in comparison. I just found out sad news from the church I grew up in. An 18 year-old kid, Bryan Evans was on our church's annual youth trip when he died in his sleep. He had diabetes and I assume his death had something to do with that. How tragic! He was an only child who had just graduated high school. I can't imagine how terrible that was for the other high school kids to find him dead like that. What a nightmare! My heart goes out to his friends and family. I didn't really know him myself though I knew who he was and I think I babysat him at a church retreat years ago. From what I hear, he was a great guy and he loved the Lord. Please pray for all the people who loved him.

What a perspective!

I have been feeling a bit weary and run-down lately. There is a lot on my plate and even though much of what I am doing brings me tremendous joy, the tedium of logistics puts me in a "poor me" mood. I don't think this in itself is sin but it definitely doesn't help anything. I just ran across the following video which totally put me in my place. The man in the video died about a month ago from colon cancer. The video brought me to tears as I was tremendously moved by his unwavering faith in the Lord. My logistical problems pale in comparison to what this man suffered and yet he chose to continue to trust in the Lord. I hope you find his story as humbling and inspiring as I did. And you might want to keep the tissues handy.

The Story of Zac Smith from NewSpring Media on Vimeo.

Restful? Weekend

It is only Tuesday and it has already been a crazy week. We have been running into a lot of problems with our visas for Asia. It seems like every day the company we are using asks us for more information. It's hard to not get frustrated but I think it will all work out in the end. We've also had a lot of financial struggles. My co-leader only got his money to go today. Wheww! I am so thankful. Two of our students still need money for Friday's deadline. I have enough for my plane ticket and nothing more. Please keep praying.

This weekend was pretty rough. It started pretty well with three of my students bribing me to take them to watch World Cup soccer at our local student's house. I don't do well waking up in the 6's on a weekend but I love my girls and they bribed me with homemade breakfast. I tried to watch some of the pre-game but I am not particularly interested in soccer. I ended up going back to sleep for a few hours in the guest bedroom. I watched the second half of the USA game. I think I'd rather play soccer than watch it. If it had been college football, it would have been a whole other story. It was nice to hang out with my girls in a real non-YWAM house. We ended up staying there for like seven hours.

Then I went back to the base to get ready for a girls' night across the island in Kihei with a bunch of current and former girl staff. There were plenty of delicious treats but my stomach was already feeling weird. I tried to socialize for a bit but I couldn't deny the pain in my stomach. When we moved into another room to play games, I asked my friend, Jess if I could lay down somewhere for a while. She let me lay in her bed and gave me the remote control so I could watch cable. The conditions were not bad at all. Unfortunately I just felt awful. I ended up throwing up about four times. I forgot how absolutely terrible it is to throw up. How do bulimics do it?

I did feel thankful that I was in a real house in a comfortable bed watching Bridezillas in between my trips to the bathroom that was conveniently attached to the bedroom. It was better than being at the base. I was sad to miss the girl bonding and goodies but my stomach hurt to bad to fake being okay. Also my face was whiter than I have ever seen it. My friend Kristy took one look at me and told me I looked weird. At least she was honest. When it was time to go home I still looked terrible and felt terrible. I laid in the back of my friend's car whimpering in the fetal position. It was not pretty. Another friend drove my car up to the base for me where I spent the night throwing up. It was less cushy since I have to go outside to go back into the house to use the bathroom. I contemplated sleeping on the couches in the living room but a dead rat was once found between the cushions. I was sick but not crazy.

 I was afraid I would never get better. I can't imagine how people go through long illnesses. I am such a wuss. In the morning I felt weak and my stomach was not to be trusted. I slept in and didn't go to church. One of my friends brought me Sprite and saltines and did my laundry for me. By nighttime I felt like myself and was able to crack jokes again. It was a pretty sucky way to spend my weekend but I was very thankful for my good friends who took care of me. One of my friends said it was the only way I would have truly rested. Maybe she was right. Hopefully next time I rest, it will involve less puking.

Money, Money, Money

Asia is coming up in 23 days and there are still financial needs on my team. Several of the students still need money and my co-leader and I do as well. I have received $800 of the $2500 I need for outreach. Please pray that all the money comes in. If you want to donate electronically , you can click on the paypal link on this page or go to my website www.lizhightower.com to donate using a check. I can provide tax receipts, so let me know if you are interested. Thanks for your continued prayers and support for my ministry.

Exhausted

The title of this post is an accurate reflection of how I feel. There are different stages when you are DTS staff and I am at the exhausted stage. We are at that point where outreach to Asia is frighteningly close and yet we still have a very full schedule. It's hard to get everything done. Due to a miscommunication, I had to spend all of Monday morning getting our visas ready to send out. We wanted to send them out that day but their photos had not been developed and therefore the whole package couldn't be sent. It was quite frustrating. Luckily I was able to finish it up and have it mailed off today. Please pray that it all happens in a timely fashion so we get them back before we have to leave. I am loving my students but the logistical details are threatening to drown me. In an effort to continue looking to the positive, I will tell of the fun part of my weekend.


One of our students, Shannon has lived on Maui since she was two. We don't get a lot of local students, though we'd definitely love to have them. Shannon has been such a blessing in sharing her home and family with us. Her parents are out of town so on Saturday night we had a girls' night at her parents' house. I was a little apprehensive about fronting all the money for pizza and snacks. I was afraid I would get stuck paying for it all. It ended up perfectly. We had enough snacks and I only had to pay $5 just like everyone else. Yay! We gorged ourselves on snacks and then played my favorite game, Loaded Questions. There were too many people to play it correctly so we just tried to make each other laugh. It totally worked.

After playing LQ, some of us went in Shannon's hot tub. YWAM makes everyone a little weird about wearing bikinis since we have so many rules about where and when you can wear them. It's funny to see how awkward we can be about it even when it's just a bunch of girls. I am not sure the hot tub was a good idea for me this time. The weekend before I had burned my stomach in a weird stripe. (Don't ask.) Being in the hot tub totally made it start peeling. Ewww. I am really hoping the stripes aren't permanent.

After hot tub fun, we continued to gorge ourselves and watched "The Devil Wears Prada." It was so nice to be in a real house hanging out. I also really enjoy spending time with the students. I can really see myself becoming friends with them after our co-leader/student relationship is over. I am also so thankful for my car. It is so much easier to spend time with my students when we can get off base and go somewhere fun on the island. I've even been taking one student to breakfast every Friday morning before worship. Those of you who know me should be super impressed that I am waking up that early.

So it's crazy but fun. There's nothing I would rather be doing right now than walking beside these students as God draws them closer and closer to Himself. And I am so grateful for the privilege of taking them to Asia!

From L-R, My student, Catie, my staff friend, Daena and my student, Shannon sippin' frosties in my car

Yet Another Tale from the Nude Beach

I hate when I haven't posted in a while because I feel like I have so much to talk about and I must mention it all. This creates painfully long blog entries that maybe only Luke Sexson will read. So, I will try to hit the high points without a tremendous amount of detail.

Money Problems
YWAM Maui has been going through some lean financial times for the last few months. We've cut the budgets of all the departments and got rid of unnecessary expenditures. In the past, our base could afford to be forgiving if someone couldn't pay their tuition or outreach fees on time. This is no longer the case. Three of our students, Myles, Chris and Victoria do not have all the money they need for lecture phase. This Friday was the deadline for all the money for lecture phase to be in. Tomorrow there will be an announcement about whether they have to go home or not. This is a really big deal.

 We have two teams going to a large Asian country. If we lose some of these people, there is a good chance that we will only have one team going to Asia. This will greatly change the team dynamics we've been trying to create. Luckily it is a small school and I know all the students well. There are several other people who have paid for their lecture phase but still need significant amounts of money towards their outreach. If they don't get that money in, they will not get to go to Asia. The work we are doing in Asia needs as many students to go there as possible. Please pray that this all works out.


Nude Beach
In lighter news, I took four of the girl students to Big Beach on Saturday. This is one of my favorite beaches on the island even though it's pretty far away. It almost never rains and is beautiful with blue water and a long stretch of sandy beach. There is also a powerful shore break. This is when the waves crash really hard in a shallow area near where the ocean meets the sand. I like to watch unsuspecting tourists get pummeled by the shore break. (As long as they don't get hurt, of course.)

There is also a nude beach called Little Beach that is just on the other side of a large rocky cliff. Another thing I like to do is swim from Big Beach to Little Beach so I can see the nude people from a safe distance. I like to watch how weird they are but I don't want to see details. From about 100 yards out, you can do just that. People who hang out at nude beaches are weird and participate in some strange naked activities like yoga, sit-ups and abnormally wide-legged stances. This is all hilarious to watch from a safe detail-less distance. I decided that I wanted to swim over to Little Beach and I took two of the students, Grace and Johanna along with me. Our plan was to swim over, gawk at the nudes and swim back. It's a bit of a long swim and we were tired when we finally got in view of the nudes.

We treaded water and giggled at the nude people's antics for a while. When we were ready to leave, we were faced with a tough decision: swim back the long way to the non-nude Big Beach or make the easier swim to the shore of the detail-filled Little Beach and climb over the rocks to get back to the beach where people had some sense of decency. We decided we could try the shorter swim onto the nude-filled shore of Little Beach as long as we stayed close to the rock divider between the beaches and kept our eyes averted from potential details. We started swimming back and quickly came upon a guy surfer wearing a rash guard (ie: surfing shirt). Grace said, "At least he is wearing a shirt." Then I said, "There's no guarantee he is wearing pants." I was right, the dude was not wearing anything but the rash guard. What a weirdo? Why wear a top and no bottoms? Luckily the only detail I saw was his butt.

We tried to quickly swim in but the waves were a bit strong. At one point the surfer caught a wave and it looked like he might hit us. Luckily I didn't look directly at him. As we were getting out, Johanna cut her foot so we had to go to the lifeguard stand. They joked with us about going to the nude beach. They told us they'd had to rescue nude people before and even did CPR on a naked guy, who ended up dying. What a undignified way to die! 

My Team

We now have our teams for Asia. We are both going to the same large Asian country. We'll be in the same place some but not the entire time. My team has six students and two leaders. My co-leader is Joey Brunette, who I have known for about four years now. He was here during the last school I staffed so he knows a bit of my history. I also did my SBFM with his sister and was on staff with some of his cousins.

Me and Joey looking pumped

Our team has a married couple, Chris and Victoria who are from Louisiana/Florida, as well as Daniel from India, Johanna from Germany, Maddie from Washington and Sarah from Alberta, Canada. They are a really fun group. I am especially excited to go to Asia with a Sarah. Everyone knows how much I enjoy the company of a good Sarah, especially while traveling.

I am excited for all the God is going to do through us. We are going to rock Asia!

Beachin' It

I have been meaning to write this post for a few days now. I guess it is better late than never. The school is going well. I recently asked a friend why it seems so much easier this time and she reminded me how crazy and out of the ordinary my last school was. The students are so much fun and a joy to be around. They are growing so much in their faith and knowledge of the Lord and I am growing too.

Our school leaders have tried to create opportunities for fun outings on the weekends. There are so many amazing things to see on Maui but it's difficult for students when they don't have cars. Last weekend we went to Ka'anapali, which is the tourist side of the island. This is the place people think I live in Maui with fabulous beaches and resorts. This is not true. I definitely like going over there to play tourist. When I was on staff before, my friend, Amy and I would hitch all the way over there. It usually took about 3 hitches and 2 hours to get there but it was worth it to pretend we were on vacation.

This time most of the students and some of the staff went. When we got there, we saw a large cloud of black smoke and heard fire trucks. The outdoor restaurant at the Westin had caught on fire. All the grass canopies above the tables were burned up and still smoldering when we joined the gawkers.

We all hung out on the beach and had a great time. There is a part of the beach called Black Rock where you can jump off cliffs into the ocean. I didn't jump but I did get some good pictures of people jumping. Nick, one of the leaders, ended up splitting his board shorts when he jumped. Then he walked down the beach unashamed with his butt exposed to the world. It was pretty hilarious! Overall it was a lot of fun. 

Reliving the Crazy Past

I was planning on waking up at 5am tomorrow to go to a spin class at the gym. But since it is already technically tomorrow (midnight) and I can't fall asleep, I definitely won't be attending the spin class. I managed to get up and go to the class last week (small miracle if you know how much I hate getting up in the fives) After the class, I just felt exhausted so I decided I wouldn't go if I didn't get to sleep before 10.

Since I can't sleep, I decided to reread my blog from the last time I DTS staffed. You're welcome to do the same. It's archived on the left from May 2006-November 2006. I have been thinking about that time a lot since I am DTS staffing again right now. It was really interesting to read what I was thinking and feeling at the time. I wish I had my journal from that time but the blog is better than nothing. After reading over the whole thing, I realize how crazy hard that time was but also how sweet. Part of me wishes I could go back to that time. The most interesting post to me was when I already had Dengue fever but was trying to pretend it wasn't true. I wrote that Rachel and Matt had it and that I was feeling sick but it was probably a sinus infection. Then the next post is days later after I was able to get out of bed after being sick with Dengue.

This DTS is going well but it is almost too well. I don't feel stretched and pulled like I did before. I think my comfort makes me less reliant on God, which I don't like. I am trying not to do things in my own strength, but it is a struggle. In the last school I staffed, it was literally impossible for me to handle all that happened using my own strength. I need to learn to rely on God more in the every day and not just in crisis. I really am thankful that my students are less needy and high maintenance this time but I miss that feeling of "what's going to happen next?" that I felt almost daily back in 2006. Who knew I would ever say that? I guess I should be careful what I wish for.

Party at the Food Bank

This Saturday our whole DTS, students and staff volunteered at the Maui Food Bank. We got there around 5:30pm for the final shift of their annual food drive. There were tons of people there. Several groups consisted of teenagers and a trying to be hip, goatee-wearing adult which immediately identified them as church youth groups. It was pretty chaotic and we didn't really know where to go. We were quickly split up and my group was assigned to unload boxes and bags of food into shopping carts. I had never seen that much SPAM and Vienna sausages in my life!!! I am sure much of the food came from people's pantries and people in Hawaii LOVE SPAM! They even serve it at McDonald's.

Unloading boxes and bags of canned goods was kind of a random task but we tried to make it fun. We would race to try to grab the bags and then rip them open as fast as we could. The whole place was kind of like an organized chaos. Some guy shoved a shopping cart into me and I totally backed myself up into an elderly woman. The whole time we were working, we were cracking jokes, which made the time pass by quickly. My students are really fun and it was awesome to bond with them during the time.

After we finished one truckload of food, we got to take a snack break. It was kind of funny since we hadn't worked particularly hard or for particularly long. I enjoyed my gatorade and cheez-its, nonetheless. After our break, the second truck arrived and it was back to taking potted meat products out of bags and depositing them into our shopping cart.

The second truck was unloaded pretty quickly. Then some tall guy in a Christian T-shirt told us to go get pizza. Who doesn't love pizza? We started running towards the pizza, when some man with a bullhorn told us, "No pizza. You're not finished." What a letdown! We felt like gluttons but we'd only been running towards the pizza because Christian T-shirt man had gotten us all pumped up about it. So we walked back into the warehouse with our tails between our legs. We ended up cleaning up for about five minutes and then were told we could get pizza. It felt like a trick, so we slowly walked out to the tents where the pizza was. This time we did actually get to eat it. After working at the food bank, I went over to my friend's house to watch Betty White on SNL. A good end to a good day!

Bikes, Soccer and Rats, Oh My

I had an eventful Saturday. I went on a bike ride for the first time in about four months. I love to bike in Houston but I don’t like it as much in Maui. For one thing, it is always very windy and for those of you who’ve ever tried to bike in the wind, you know it is no fun. Also the roads are a bit dangerous, especially the ones near our base. There are several points where the shoulder is only a couple feet away from the edge of a cliff. With all these tourists driving their Jeeps, Sebrings and Mustang convertibles, one wrong move could bump me off the edge into the ocean far below. So, on Saturday I packed my bike in my car and drove to my friend, Kristy’s to start our bike ride. Her house is not on a windy cliff-filled road, so it’s a lot less dangerous area. Kristy dressed like she was going to the beach with casual clothes,flip flops and no helmet. I, trying to show off how hardcore I am about biking, wore a helmet, black spandex shorts (under my basketball shorts- I am not THAT hardcore) and my bike shoes. I have clip-in pedals that connect my fancy shoes to my fancy pedals.

Kristy and I rode to a nearby beach and sat and talked. It was fun to catch up and the ride there was a breeze. The ride back was not as we rode against the wind. We finally made it back to Kristy’s. Her house has a short but steep driveway. As I was riding up, I realized that I didn’t have the momentum to make it all the way to the top of the driveway. I realized that I needed to quickly unclip my feet from my pedals. I got my right foot out but there was no hope for my left. I made a strange high pitched sound and down I went, still attached to my bike. It took me a while to get untangled and once Kristy saw that I was okay she laughed at me the way my little stunt deserved. I felt pretty dumb but at least Kristy got a good laugh. I am a little sore and bruised but nothing permanently damaged except possibly my pride.

Later in the day, I decided to go play soccer. A bunch of people from YWAM go play soccer every Saturday and I had been meaning to go for a while. Just like the book, “Stuff White People Like” says, I like the idea of soccer. I am not particularly good at it but I would like to be. Basketball is more my game but there don’t seem to be as many opportunities to play basketball as there are to play soccer. Some of my students were playing so I figured it was a good idea to try to bond with them through athletic activity. I strategically placed myself on defense so I wouldn’t have to worry too much about my ball handling skills. I can kick but I don’t always know where it is going to go. Luckily our goalie was 6’9” so there was a large margin for error. It ended up being a lot of fun. I have such a low opinion of my soccer skills that whenever I mess up, I don’t really care and whenever I do well, I get so excited. I am no David Beckham, but at least I didn’t make a fool of myself.

Later that night, I watched a TV show with a friend until 11pm. Then I went into our kitchen to wash my dish. When I turned on the light, a big rat was staring at me as if I were the one trespassing in his kitchen and not the other way around. I didn’t want to scream and wake up the whole house but I definitely made a weird little yelp that was probably similar to the sound I made earlier that day when I fell with my bike. I didn’t know what to do. At that same time, I saw a giant cockroach. I tried to hit the less creepy enemy with a spoon but missed the roach and scared the rat. The vermin ran towards the front door, which was unfortunately where I was headed. I heard a little yelp and later figured out it was a housemate who’d been coming in the door at the wrong time. I didn’t feel safe walking out to my room in the direction the rat had gone. There were no boys around so I grabbed one of the DTS girls, Catie. She is like 5 feet tall but fearless. She checked the area for me and gave me the all clear to go outside to my room. It was hard to sleep after that as I continued to imagine the rat falling on my face during the night. Ewww! Please pray that we can end our rat problem. This is disgusting! The rat incident put a damper on an otherwise pretty good Saturday.

Radical Revelations

This week has been very intense. My friend/mentor, Maria Daughtry came and spoke for this first week of lecture on "Hearing the Voice of God." This is a pretty intense topic and God really did a lot in my heart during this week. I feel like it was like a jump start to my faith in a really good way. I can hear the Lord's voice louder than I have been able to in a really long time. It looks like many of the students felt the same way.

Even though I normally keep this blog more on the humorous side but with this post I would like to share some of what I feel God's been teaching me lately. I hope it convicts and blesses you as much as it has done for me.

I have also been reading the book, CRAZY LOVE by Francis Chan. I highly recommend it! I feel that God's been speaking to me through this book, for sure. This week Maria prayed for all of us. The words she got for me were how I follow God but I always have to talk about all the pros and the cons and what I will need, etc. The picture she got was like I am scaling a cliff and I make it to the top just fine on my own strength. I am feeling good about myself and then God shows me a giant mountain He wants me to climb. I immediately tell Him why it's impossible and how I will need this and that. He just tells me to trust Him. For anyone who knows me well, this is totally me. I want to follow God but I get nervous and caught up in all the details and potential problems. God wants me to just say, "Yes" to him right away and trust that he will figure out all the details. Then today when I was reading Crazy Love, I was convicted about this all over again.

Francis Chan talks of the story in the 9th chapter of Luke where Jesus calls his twelve disciples together to go out and preach and heal people. He specifically tells them not to bring food, money, extra clothes, etc. He wants them to trust that He will provide all they need. I can totally picture myself as one of Jesus' disciples. I would be the one saying, "But Jesus, wouldn't it be easier to minister to people if I could just bring extra deodorant and a change of clothes?" "Wouldn't bringing my computer be nice so we could communicate with people back home?" I need to have the kind of faith that the disciples had to simply follow Jesus and trust that He will provide all I need.

Another part of the book that totally convicted me was based on 2 Corinthians 8:13-15. "Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. Then there will be equality, as it is written: "He who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little."

This passage totally convicted me! Everyone on our base raises support for their living expenses and staff fees. No one gets paid and all must rely on friends, family, churches and sometimes strangers for money to live on here. People do this to varying degrees of success. Some people have $1000 + in committed monthly support and others have less than $100. I think the prevailing attitude around here is that it is your right to live at the highest standard of living you can on your support. If you get a lot, you can spend a lot on clothes, coffee, etc. This is not all bad. But I think sometimes those of us who are a little more financially stable (and I mean a little bit), can forget the principle of sacrificial giving to those around us who we may eat with, minister with, or share a room with. I was getting pretty content with my giving. I tithe the support I get and then the rest goes to monthly expenses. I feel God calling me to give more sacrificially to my fellow missionaries. So what if it means I can't buy that frappaccino at Starbucks? What's more important, my comfort or the very basic needs of my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ?

Pray for NASA

This post isn't really related to my ministry in Maui/Asia but is an issue near and dear to my heart. I grew up in Clear Lake, a suburb of Houston that developed around NASA. Most of my friends' parents worked for NASA or Exxon. I knew several kids whose dads were astronauts and one of those astronauts was even my Sunday school teacher. A large percentage of people who go to the church I grew up in work for NASA. Some of my supporters, family friends, church friends and high school classmates work there right now. My best friend, Sarah and her husband, John both work in mission control.

I say all that to show that I have a close connection with NASA. As far as I know, Obama has cut funding to some of NASA's programs. Unless something changes, NASA will only work on the International Space Station, no longer launching its own shuttles but paying Russia to essentially hitchhike on theirs. If this happens, many people that I care about will lose their jobs. I feel especially bad for Sarah who basically has her dream job now and has never wanted to do anything else. Please pray for all the people who work at NASA. Pray for peace for them and their families as their jobs are in limbo. Pray that Obama will do the right thing concerning NASA, whatever that may be.

Thanks

Beginning Again

I think this past opening night was my seventh in my YWAM career. They don't really ever get old. Opening Night is our big celebration to welcome the students to our base. Usually there is no real theme to the event but the staff makes a funny video to introduce themselves. The videos are hilarious to those of us who know them but often the students don't get the inside jokes. We tried to lessen the awkward feeling the students inevitably get from being in a new place with strange people telling inside jokes. We gave the night an Academy Awards theme. We had the staff dress in fancy clothes and the DTS staff, like myself went over the top in thrift store finery. To give you an idea, my dress was black velvet with rhinestones and the biggest, poufiest shoulder pads I had seen since the 1980's. We laid out a red carpet and tried to decorate our venue in star-studded fashion. We even had red carpet interviews against a YWAM background. I think people had fun. I made a video montage of pictures that made it look like all the DTS had starred in obscure made-up movies like "Little Trouble, Big Sandwich." People seemed to enjoy it.

 It was pretty surreal for me to realize that I was committing myself again to the crazy 24/7 job of DTS staff. It is both an amazing privilege and a difficult sacrifice. Part of that sacrifice began at the end of the night when Exodus was announced. Exodus is something our base does to start each DTS. It's basically a multi-day camping trip that helps the students break down barriers and get to know each other better. I've been on two of these before and I don't particularly enjoy them but I understand their purpose.

The students and staff are limited in what they can bring with them on Exodus. We could only bring: one shirt, one pair of pants, one pair of shorts, one sweatshirt, one pair of socks, one pair of shoes, one pair of sandals, Bible, journal, pen, swimsuit, hat, sunscreen, backpack, sleeping bag and camera. Note that I did not list toothbrush or deodorant. The deodorant is the one thing that bothers me the most. I hate the smell of B.O, especially if it is coming from me! I am always tempted to cheat since the staff's bags are not checked but I know it is wrong, so I don't.

We woke up really early to pack a lunch. Then we headed to a local park to play games. We formed three different "tribes" and made up names and cheers. My team was called CaHaGerTex because we had people from Canada, California, Hawaii, Germany and Texas. We ended up winning probably because we did a human pyramid. Everyone loves a human pyramid. After establishing our tribes, the students then went on a scavenger hunt throughout the island to give the students a chance to get to know each other and the island. They had to hitchhike everywhere to complete their assigned tasks, which was a stretch for some. One group got picked up by someone early on who took them to all the stops and took their pictures for them. Obviously they were the first group to arrive.

The staff met up with the students at the final stop, Iao Valley. We ate lunch and then all had a quiet time with God. It's easy to feel God's presence in such a picturesque place. After Iao Valley, we drove to our campsite and set up camp. The last time I went on Exodus, four years ago, we slept under a tarp. This time we slept in tents because there had been too many centipede bites in the past. I was grateful for this minor improvement in accommodation.

We had to eat Ramen noodles for lunch and dinner. Unfortunately I hate Ramen noodles and having that for two meals a day was not my idea of fun. We also had plain oatmeal for breakfast to spice things up. We had to use the same bowl and chopsticks for every meal. It's funny to see how much my attitude can be based on what I eat. Eating Ramen and oatmeal made mealtime borderline disgusting when I usually enjoy eating. In addition to eating bland foods, we spent the time getting to know each other better and spending time with God. It was good but I really wanted deodorant. One of the funniest things was when we had a contest to open a coconut. Myles, a fellow Texan made our team win by a mile. He smashed the coconut repeatedly on a rock and just ripped the thing apart. You'd never guess he'd never opened a coconut before.

We ended up spending two nights out there dirty and deodorant-less. Afterward, we drove to my church for Love Feast- a fancy dinner to bless the students. It is always such a relief for the students to be back in civilization and eating delicious food instead of Ramen. I was so grateful to be back. My friends had brought me deodorant, toothbrush, snacks and perfume. It made me feel loved.

Island Hopping

I am writing this on my Blackberry at the Maui airport. This is not the ideal blog writing scenario but my friends are late to pick me up and I am bored.
I am getting back from my mini-trip to Hilo. My cousin, David lives there and his mom and our Aunt Nancy came for a visit. This is probably the worst time they could come: me with no extra money for a plane ticket and the Dts students arriving and our school about to start. My cousin tried to convince me to come via facebook and clearly it worked since I went. Luckily the money part worked out due to contributions from my cousin, aunts and parents. It turned out that I had a day off while the aunts would be in Hilo so I asked my bosses if I could go over for about 2 and a half days. They said yes and off I went.

My cousin, David decided we should surprise the aunts, which was a great idea. I pretended to ask them to help me read a map and they were surprised to see me standing there. My plane had come in about thirty minutes before theirs so David picked me up to plan. While we were deciding on the tourist scenario, David's seven year old son, Rowan said, "They are going to figure out you are not a tourist when you get in the car." He didn't understand that they might recognize me since they'd known me since I was born.

Hilo is pretty different from Maui. The area David lives in is a bit similar to the town I live in now. There is lots of rain and lots of vegetation. But where David's part of the Big Island looks like something out of The Lord of the Rings, Maui mainly looks like the Hawaii you see on TV: sandy beaches and sunshine. It was interesting to see all the differences. My favorite place we went had a huge waterfall and was near a giant Banyan tree. We have a big Banyan tree in Maui but this one was unattended so you could climb in it. It was really cool.

My cousin's house was really spacious and I am pretty sure it was bigger than the house I currently live in with 30 people. My only complaint about the accommodations was the loud roosters crowing at all hours of the day and night. They must not have good internal clocks because it definitely wasn't sunrise when they were loudly and obnoxiously crowing.

Quickly my trip was over and I headed back to Maui. Some of the students had already arrived when I got there. Tomorrow we are going on Exodus, our get to know you camping trip. I'll be out of technological contact for a few days but I am sure I will have great stories when I get back.

Staff Conference Extravaganza

For the last two days we've had something called, "Staff Conference." It's a quarterly event where we go over rules, regulations and procedures, as well as bond as a staff. Yesterday we sat through about 3 1/2 hours of presentation on our base's rules, support raising, YWAM International, our base's statistics and more. Luckily most of it was pretty interesting. Then after we had lunch, we were divided into three teams to compete in a serious of relays. It reminded me a bit of Young Life and I was prepared since I was wearing my Young Life shirt.

I was on a team with Joey, Fritz, Daena, Larry, Timi and Simon. We only had two girls, which is a bit of an advantage in physical competition, I have to admit. The relays were old favorites like wheelbarrow race, crab walk, dizzy bat, egg toss, etc. It was nice to see people in a different environment. I didn't realize some people were hiding such mad crab walking skills. I knew that I was competitive but I didn't realize how many others on staff are very competitive as well. At one point we attempted to play this really bizarre game. I don't remember what it was called, but I will describe it.

My team formed a circle holding hands. At this point we'd lost the other girl as she had to go prepare dinner. So it was just me and the boys. Timi had egg all over his hands so it was pretty disgusting to hold his hand. The egg goo did make them stick together a bit, which was good for the objective of the game. As my team stood in a circle holding hands, someone from the other team had to say some sort of cheesy line I can't recall and they were allowed in the circle. Then, they had to say another cheesy line and attempt to leave the circle. The game was chaos! As the only girl, I was an obvious target for escape. Apparently they hadn't factored in my years of boxing out for a rebound in basketball coupled with my fierce competitive nature. I honestly don't remember what actually happened, but my teammates were very impressed. The problem with the game is that the person trying to escape always ended up in a tangled heap that consisted of me and my teammates. There seemed to be no time limit for their escape and we turned into a giant writhing pile of bodies until someone said stop. At one point my wrist started to twist the wrong way. I decided a broken wrist was not worth it and decided to let go. The game was funny to watch, I am sure but painful to be a part of. I never really did get the point.

The last event was something we often subject our students to. It's a relay where you have to eat foods that other cultures like but we often think are gross. It is good preparation for outreach where you often have to eat food you wouldn't choose to eat. I am not the best at this sort of game. In this version, each team member had to choose something out of the bag and eat it. Everyone had to go at least once but there were three "lifelines" where someone could help their teammate eat. Some of the items were gross and some just difficult or time-consuming to eat. I went first and got some disgusting fried seaweed. I hate seaweed but I couldn't let my team down. I almost puked but I got it down. Later I helped a teammate eat a Snickers so I could get the seaweed taste out of my mouth. In the end my team dominated and won the grand prize- 30 candy bars.

Today we had more meetings about the DTS and SFMI- our Surfer's for Missions program. Then we had a beach day. We went to Kihei, which is almost always sunny. Today was one of the few exceptions. We even changed beaches midway to escape the blowing sand. We ended up in a grassy park next to the beach. It was fun but extremely windy. Overall it was a good staff conference. I feel more informed and more bonded. I am pretty sure that was the whole point.

Transition Time....Again!

The last two weeks have been quite interesting. The students left for Asia about a week ago so it was a crazy week leading up to their departure. I finished the curriculum for English teaching that I had been working on for about a month. I am anxious to see how it works overseas.

This past week we've started training for DTS staff. This involves getting to know each other better, praying for our future students and planning the overall DTS. We will continue to do this next week as well.

I don't have a whole lot to say in this blog post but I wanted to mention that I put a tour of the house I currently live in on my website. Go to www.lizhightower.com and click on Maui videos. I should be moving to a better room shortly but you can see some of our base and my living conditions for the past two months.

Important Speaking Engagement

I got booked for a pretty important speaking engagement this past Monday. It was at Doris Todd, a local Christian school here. They were having a spiritual emphasis week and wanted people from our base to come share about missions. It was my job to introduce the topic and give an overview of missions in general and what we do at YWAM Maui. I had about 45 minutes to fill and three videos to show the group of about 75 students in grades Kindergarten through 5th grade.

My friend, Jill and I came prepared with candy. I know kids and they love candy. If we started to bomb, I knew our whole talk could be redeemed by simply throwing candy at them. The kids all began to file in and stare at us. Then an elderly lady on a piano led them in songs and pledges. They did the United States pledge and the Hawaiian pledge, which seemed perfectly normal to me since we pledged to the American flag and the Texas flag every morning when I was a teacher. Although the Texas pledge is in English, unlike the Hawaiian pledge, which is in Hawaiian. Maybe we Texans should come up with our own language. After the country and state pledges, we pledged to the Christian flag (didn't know such a thing existed) and to the Bible. Each pledge had a song to accompany it. It was quite a production.

After the pledges, it was our turn to talk. We had problems getting my laptop to work with the projector, so two of the male teachers transferred files from my computer to theirs to make it work. This meant I had to kill time. Luckily I have a lot of experience talking to children these ages. I asked if they knew what missionaries were and one of the kids had the right answer and was rewarded with candy. I then asked the kids to name famous missionaries and several of them had good answers. One of the kids said Jesus, which is somewhat accurate so I had to give him candy. Our base director's son was in there and he named his dad and Loren Cunningham as famous missionaries. It was really cute.

Then I asked the kids to tell me any foreign countries they'd been to. I don't think the Kindergarten students really understood what country meant since they answered things like, California, New York City, Washington and my personal favorite, Disneyworld! Finally we got one of the videos to work and we got them to pay attention by telling them that we'd have questions after that they could answer for candy. The video was a bit above their heads but they were able to answer our questions. Then I showed a powerpoint on China and let them ask questions. I was supposed to show a video on Borneo but it wouldn't play so we extended the question and answer period a bit. Their questions were pretty interesting. They seemed especially intrigued by the pictures in the slide show that showed my friends eating a scorpion.

Overall it was fun and made me miss being a teacher. I just love school and kids. Maybe they'll have me back for another speaking engagement.

Sweet Dreams

Here is me in my little kid bed the night before my big kid test!